EBU holds first press conference
Malmö, May 13 (AZERTAC). The very first conference to be held in the newly opened press centre was for the organisers of the 2013 contest, and representatives of the EBU, SVT and the city of Malmö took questions from the assembled journalists and fans.
On stage at the press conference were Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Sietse Bakker, Event Supervisor, Martin Österdahl, Executive Producer 2013, Christer Björkman, Show Producer 2013, Christel Tholse Willers, Head of Relations 2013, and Karin Karlsson, Project Manager Malmö city.
Most of the questions and answers that were exchanged revolved around the running order decisions, and clarifications on elements of the voting procedure.
Jon Ola Sand stressed that the decision on deciding the running order was made by the Reference Group, and not by SVT, and approved by the television committee of the EBU, to make it a perfect television show and to give very song the opportunity to shine.
Similarly the changes to the rehearsal schedule came about after feedback from various delegations, and to reduce time and costs, and that even having reduced the rehearsal time by one day has made a significant benefit, and that it has turned out to be very successful and will set the pattern for future years.
The idea of having the first rehearsals closed to the press has proved to be beneficial to the artists and delegations, and by a way of a compromise they were shown at the Euroclub.
The 'Big 5' will be drawn into respective halves of the draw during their press conferences, and after much confusuion over the issue of the number of balls, it seems that there will,be three balls marked up as 'first half' and two balls with 'second half', as the other automatically qualified country, Sweden, has already been drawn at number 16, which is in the second half.
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